“You don’t claim you bought him, I suppose?” said the man who called himself Reynolds.
“But we will!” cried Ruth, instantly. “We will gladly pay for him.”
“Oh, he’s not for sale again,” laughed the man. “I sold him once and he wouldn’t stay sold, you see.”
“Then he doesn’t belong to you now, any more than he does to us, really,” Ruth hastened to say.
“Well——that’s so, I suppose,” admitted the man.
“We won’t give Tom Jonah up to anybody,” said Agnes again.
Dot was crying and Tess could scarcely keep from following her lead. Tom Jonah stood solemnly, his eyes very bright, his tail waving slowly. He looked from the girls to the man in the runabout, and back again. He knew they were discussing him; but he did not know just what it was all about.
“If we have to,” said Ruth, with much more confidence in her voice than she felt in her heart, “we will give Tom Jonah up to the person who really owns him. We do not know you, sir. We do not know if what you say is true. You must prove it.”
“Well! I like that!” said the man in a tone that showed he did not like it at all. “You are a pretty pert young lady, you are. I guess I’ll take my own dog home. I heard he was over here to the beach and I drove over particularly to get him.”
“Take him, then!” exclaimed Ruth, desperately. “If Tom Jonah will go with you, all right. You call him.”